Thursday, February 08, 2007

Band of the Week: Frankel

Sometimes it takes a little bit for music to really click. That was the case for me with LA musician Michael Orendy's band Frankel... though it didn't really take too long.

I'd picked up his Chatterbox EP at Sea Level and was listening to it while driving to San Francisco a few weeks ago for work. I didn't have to drive, but it looked like my fiancee and I had just split, so I figured a road trip was in order...

I wasn't really all there so wasn't completely concentrating on the cd until the final track All Satellites came on. It started out slow and pretty and stripped down, but the guitars kicked in about halfway through and forced me to pay attention to just how good it sounded.

I replayed the song a few more times... Then began the EP over again and then found myself listening repeatedly to earlier tracks like the Grandaddy-esque Antidote and charmingly plaintive Don't Leave... And I've been hooked on its smarty pop goodness ever since.